Do not move an ancient boundary stone
which was put in place by your ancestors
-Proverbs 22:28

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Beauty in Submission- pt.3

Offended
by the above picture? Offended
by a male usurping the role of breastfeeding?

Seems the La Leche League is offended too.Won’t let him become a leader of their
breastfeeding League, despite his whining.Whining like a girl… cuz he actually is a girl.

Actually
a gender bender.Actually a transgendered
woman.

A woman whose
“breasts aren’t big enough for latching anymore”.And whose hormone supplements has messed up
her internal milk production.So she has
to supplement her minimized mammaries with an external tube now.Feed her child with another mother’s
milk.

A
pity that she can’t have the best of both worlds. Let’s have a pity party.

And
that’s just what the gender benders want- the best of both worlds.But as we can see, it simply doesn’t work all
that well.It is an idealism of mythical
proportions.It is simply NOT pragmatic.

Now
I had mentioned earlier of a similar hypocrisy from Christians for Biblical Equality
(CBE) - that they want the best of both worlds as well.But that simply isn’t possible.And they really wouldn’t want it even if it
were possible.

CBE
would not really want to promote equal
custody of children. And would certainly
not want to promote equal custody of
un-weaned infants.It would be an affront to their mammaries as
well as their memories.

You
see, CBE recognizes the traditional value of role playing as well.They realize that perfect equality is simply not
possible physically.

And
women generally recognize that there is some distinct metaphysical difference as well.Generally recognize that there is some debilitating sort of spiritual
disposition (“desire”) that women continue to be bound by (Gen. 3:16).Although they find that admitting such a
predisposition is “frankly soul crushing”.

And
what about non-Christian egalitarians?Well, they are hypocrites too.They
wouldn’t know what to do with absolute equality on a good day- let alone a bad
day.

Pragmatically
speaking, do you think that they would always
grant their ‘significant others’ a 50% vote in the home?A 50% vote outside of the home?In the garage? In the bedroom? Whether to
have a job or not?Whether to have
children or not? Whether to abort their fetus or not?

Indeed,
they also recognize that an equal vote simply doesn’t work in many cases.Too many stalemates with their mates.Too little life and too little love.

Equality
is simply not a viable option.Not in
the womb and not in the tomb… but it sure is fun to pretend, huh?Pretend that that a female can actually be a
male.

But
we started this series merely talking of Christian ministry, right?Where Christian women are merely seeking ‘equal
opportunity in the church’, right?Equal
opportunity to ‘minister’, right?

Yet
opportunity was never the issue… authority was always the issue. And as BADG and Mounce claim,there
actually is an authority structure in
the biblical church…and Elders are that biblical authority.

Elders
are that headship in the church.And as
Waltke essentially says, ‘Elders have never been women and may not be women’ [or
transgendered women for that matter].And
Waltke insists that women remain bound by a certain heirarchy.

Bound
by the word of God in their walk.

Bound
by their fathers in their youth.

Bound
by their husbands in their marriage.

And
somewhat bound by the Elders in their
church.Somewhat bound to the extent that they may be removed from that
particular church.

Now,
it is my understanding that women may indeed be ordained with the keys of a
certain kingdom by their church elders. Mayindeed be ordained to “bind and loose” sin
and Satan (Matt. 16:19) with
the preaching of the gospel.May indeed be ordained to preach the
gospel of that particular church (yet, how many Sunday school teachers are
ordained?).But as Matthew Henry
comments on this Matthean verse, ordained and endorsed “only if they turn the key the right way”.

Now
to show this binding hierarchy, let’s have a look at that often neglected
passage that Waltke brought up in our last post.Let’s look at Numbers 30.Words that “the LORD has commanded”
(v.1).

Words
that I do not see abrogated this side of The Cross.Yet words that CBE seems to think that
Galatians 3:28 abrogates [this verse is actually only referring to salvation].

So,
in Numbers 30 we see that a woman’s authority is restricted by her most immediate priest.Bound by her father in her youth and later
bound by her husband in her marriage.And her authority is restricted not only by her husband inside her
marriage, but surprisingly also by her husband OUTSIDE of her marriage (“when
she becomes a widow or is divorced”- v. 9).

So
having lower church Elders ordain a
woman for “lifetime service” [as we mentioned CMA now endorsing] is rather problematic, isn't it?

Problematic
since this is a temporal service subject
to change.Subject not only to a higher biblical authority (scripture, father,
or husband) but also subject to the key being turned the right way.

It
is like an enclave of Cardinals electing and binding a pope for “lifetime
service”.Yet- we know that many popes turned
the alleged ‘keys of Peter’ the wrong way. Many popes became mad with power,
became heretics, abdicated and were also deposed.Their “lifetime service” was considerably less
than “lifetime”.

But
in this peculiar age of enlightenment and entitlement- women complain that
submitting to a ‘higher biblical authority is “oppressive”.Yet, what we can see from this Numbers passage-
is that submitting can actually be quite liberating.

Submission
can liberate women of an oppressive ordination.Can liberate women from an oppressive servitude (the Old Testament
insists on the liberation of slaves).Liberate women from an oppressive organization or even an oppressive church.

And
can bring her under the care and control of a loving priest.A priest who
is physically and metaphysically ‘closer than a brother’.A priest who can “annul” those rash vows (v. 8,
12).A priest who loves her enough to “bear
her guilt” (v. 15). “And the LORD will
forgive her” (v. 5, 8, 12).